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Thread: Fallon Fox

  1. #1
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    Fallon Fox

    I've been waiting for this one. It has already happened in Muay Thai, but then, if you know anything about Thailand, that was to be expected sooner. We've discussed Gay MMA (where you people couldn't stay civil enough to not get it locked down) and there was some discussion of Liz Carmouche's orientation on the RR thread, and of course, the MMA Gay porn thread , but transgender is a little different.

    Posted: Tue March 5, 2013 5:30PM; Updated: Tue March 5, 2013 6:05PM
    Loretta Hunt>INSIDE MMA
    Transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox faces licensing problems


    Fallon Fox (center) won her professional debut at a King of the Cage event in Idaho last May.
    Photo courtesy of Fallon Fox

    Fallon Fox is bracing herself for controversy, and as the first on-record transgender female fighter in mixed martial arts, she's going to get plenty of it.

    On Monday, the 37-year-old Fox (2-0) revealed exclusively to SI.com that she's a transgender fighter -- the first on record, male or female, to compete in the combat sport. Fox won her second professional bout with a 39-second knockout (via knee) last Saturday at Championship Fighting Alliance 10 in Coral Gables, Fla.

    Fox, who underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2006 along with the supplemental hormonal therapy, is scheduled to fight again for the CFA on April 20 in the semifinals of its eight-woman featherweight tournament. However, Fox's license approval is now under investigation with Florida's Dept. of Business and Professional Regulation.

    "Our department is currently investigating allegations pertaining to the information provided on [Fox's] application," wrote Sandi Copes Poreda, Director of Communications for the DBPR, which oversees the Florida State Boxing Commission.

    On her application, a copy of which was provided to SI.com, Fox stated that she held an MMA combatant's license issued in 2013 by the California State Athletic Commission. However, CSAC Executive Director Andy Foster confirmed that Fox's application for licensure was still under review, though the fighter and her manager, Brett Atchley, believed she had received notice of her licensure in the mail in late February. Licensure secured in other jurisdictions -- particularly in a key state like California -- can weigh heavily on a regulatory body's review of a new applicant's information.

    In addition, Fox admits she did not disclose her transgender history, and presumably the pertaining medical documents that would have accompanied her Florida application, because she was not asked to.

    In response to inquiries regarding Fox's transgender status or if she was obligated to disclose it, Poreda wrote, "The Florida State Boxing Commission is in the process of updating the rules for professional MMA events and this topic will be included in an upcoming workshop on changes to the administrative rules."

    Fox claims her CSAC-issued combatant's license was mailed to her approximately two weeks ago, after she'd spoken with a CSAC representative via phone and submitted an application packet containing the required medical paperwork, as well as a detailed history of her transgender-related surgeries.

    CSAC Executive Officer Foster said the state agency had only mailed Fox a receipt for the initial $60 application -- the standard procedure for all athletes who file for licensure consideration. In addition, Foster said that Fox also applied for a national identification card with his office and that approval was also still pending. The card is a second requirement of athletes wishing to compete within most North American jurisdictions, as it connects the fighter's records to a central database those commissions can collectively review. Fox stated she'd been granted the card in Florida. However, the DBPR said this second application was still pending.

    "I think it's imperative to remember that the Florida commission allowed this fight, not the California commission," said Foster. "California merely received and is processing the application. We're working on the necessary medical reviews. We simply have an application."

    Following his initial review of Fox's packet, Foster said both he and the CSAC's medical review board would require additional documentation from the athlete during its forthcoming vetting process, though he said Fox would be afforded the same opportunity to provide this information as any other applicant.

    According to Foster, the CSAC did not receive any inquiries from the Florida regulatory body regarding Fox's purported licensure in California. Foster was initially unaware of Fox's first communication with the CSAC office through another official.

    "CSAC staff handled this without notifying me of the unusual circumstances," said Foster. "Because this is the first of its kind situation, this matter should have been referred to me for review under the commission's medical review panel, which ultimately makes a decision in how to proceed in a case like this. I'm taking appropriate actions to make sure this protocol is followed next time."

    For her pro debut in May 2012, Fox fought in Idaho for the King of the Cage promotion, which franchises its brand worldwide to multiple, non-affiliated promoters at any given time. Fox said the bout, which she won by first-round stoppage, took place on sovereign land, which is exempt from state oversight. Fox said she was only required to submit bloodwork and take a pregnancy test, and was unsure if she'd done so under the promotion itself or an overseeing body assigned by the Coeur D'Alene Native American Tribe. Fox's three previous amateur bouts, all won by first-round submission, were held in Illinois, where she is a resident.
    Gene Ching
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  2. #2
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    Can't wait to see Midget MMA next...

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    So dude chopped of the sausage and now fights a bunch of girls? I don't really think thats fair.
    For whoso comes amongst many shall one day find that no one man is by so far the mightiest of all.

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    How did I know Lucas would comment on this thread?
    Psalms 144:1
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    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

  5. #5
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    lol!!! you have me pegged!
    For whoso comes amongst many shall one day find that no one man is by so far the mightiest of all.

  6. #6
    Now I know where

    come from.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Lucas View Post
    lol!!! you have me pegged!
    At least you still have a peg!

  8. #8
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    Been there, done that, Brule...

    Quote Originally Posted by Brule View Post
    Can't wait to see Midget MMA next...
    Not me personally, mind you, but there's already a thread here and a websearch will provide more.

    Dwarf Cage Fighting
    Gene Ching
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  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by MightyB View Post
    Now I know where

    come from.
    ya that is not a boy dog any longer. thats why snausages have the little pink tip sticking out.
    For whoso comes amongst many shall one day find that no one man is by so far the mightiest of all.

  10. #10
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    lol, i was just coming here to check if this had made it here yet.

    hasn't the IOC been sorta dealing with this for decades as far as determining gender by chromosone's?

    I've not looked, and i'm not tonight.
    "George never did wake up. And, even all that talking didn't make death any easier...at least not for us. Maybe, in the end, all you can really hope for is that your last thought is a nice one...even if it's just about the taste of a nice cold beer."

    "If you find the right balance between desperation and fear you can make people believe anything"

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  11. #11
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    An update

    Good point about the IOC, Oso. This is a point of contention in many other sports. I guess that by this barometer, MMA has arrived.
    Dispelling the mischaracterizations of Fallon Fox
    Mar 7, 2013 2:32 PM ET | By Melissa Isaacson
    Transgender MMA Fighter's License Under Review

    Florida State Boxing Commission officials are reviewing the license of Fallon Fox after learning she is a transgender female.Tags: MMA, Fallon Fox, Franklin McNeil, Michele Steele, Transgender, Championship Fighting Alliance

    If Brett Atchley could transmit sweat by phone, there would have been a fine film covering the earpierce. It was that kind of a day, the kind of hectic that one imagines could only be experienced by the agent of a transgender mixed martial arts fighter who just outed herself and was now trying to salvage her career.

    It sure didn't seem fair.


    Rolando de la Fuente/Championship Fighting AllianceFallon Fox has a 5-0 record with all of her victories coming in the first round.

    Less than a week ago, Fallon Fox was living her life the way she no doubt envisioned, as the woman she always felt she was born to be, enjoying and excelling in her sport as a fledgling pro at age 37. The next thing she knew, she was huddling with Atchley and his lawyer trying to figure out through whom and how they were going to tell the world that, before 2006, she was a man.

    Earlier Wednesday, Fox's fight promoter described her as "heartbroken" at the series of events following her knockout of Ericka Newsome 39 seconds into their bout in Coral Gables, Fla., on Saturday night. Jorge De La Nova, CEO for Championship Fighting Alliance, said Fox called him Sunday morning and apologized.

    "Jorge," Fox told him, "I'd go to the gym for the last six years and everyone treated me as a woman. I didn't want to have to go around and tell everyone different."

    De La Nova said he never knew about Fox's past. Atchley did and said he expected this day would come, but not necessarily in the way it did, when a "rogue reporter," as he put it, who knew Fox from her previous life, began nosing around and asking questions after the fight. Atchley decided to go to another reporter, a longtime friend who writes for SI.com, and tell her that Fox had undergone gender reassignment surgery more than six years earlier.

    They certainly should have expected the firestorm that followed, but De La Nova said he was a bit overwhelmed as calls from other fighters flooded his office.

    "It has gotten to the point where some are saying, 'I'm fighting her in the next round. Am I fighting a male or female? What's the deal?'" De La Nova said.

    By late Wednesday, according to Atchley, Fox had steeled herself and was "focused" on how to tell people her intentions. Or perhaps, better stated, what they are not.

    "People are focusing on the MMA part," Atchley said, "but to those of us inside her circle, the fact that she's an MMA fighter is not important."

    What was important, they said, was to somehow correct the mischaracterizations.

    "The contention for Fallon seems to be people characterizing her as dishonest and manipulating, that she somehow manifested her destiny by saying, 'I'm going to have this operation and then I'm going to be a fighter and world champion,'" Atchley said. "I just posed this to [someone], that if a physician walked up to you and said, 'I'm going to remove your testicles and ***** and this will take care of your cancer, what would you choose?' He said it was a perplexing question. I said I knew what I'd choose. I'd take my chances against cancer. So the idea that she has an agenda [is ridiculous]."

    The inner circle strategized, and what they came up with was that Fox would not do any more interviews until this weekend "on a major national platform," according to Atchley, which will amount to a cable news channel's Saturday morning programming.

    Unfortunately, the task of educating people in a culture that still largely does not grasp the possibility that there are those among us born with certain predispositions over which they have no control will not be easy.

    Foremost is this notion that it is unfair, because some would believe Fox's opponents are still fighting against a man. And even in the medical community, you will receive different opinions. There are those who say estrogen therapy diminishes testosterone levels after about one year, and there is no evidence to suggest that transitioned athletes would be at an advantage or disadvantage over those non-transitioned men and women. Others contend that genetic testing will always detect birth gender and muscle mass, depending on the sport and age of the athlete, could be an advantage for someone like Fox.

    While the Florida and California boxing commissions decide whether Fox's license application is valid, De La Nova said he has no doubts about Fox, who is 5-0 as a professional, with all of her victories coming in the first round.

    "As a promoter, obviously everyone who comes into my office, what I see is a fighter," he said. "I don't ask anyone what their sexual preference is. What they do with their personal life is not my business. She's a sweet girl. ... And where we stand as a company is that she's a female. She has her [boxing] license in Illinois. She has an Illinois driver's license [as a female]. She's a female, and she's definitely a fighter. I just don't see how anybody can revoke her license."

    But just as Fox's team tries to make their case, Newsome's coach and manager is furious, "and not about what you think I am."

    Matt Hambleton is petitioning the Florida State Athletic Commission on several grounds, contending Saturday's fight was stopped too soon. But he is far angrier at what he calls a series of deceptions by Fox and Atchley, as well as careless screening by the Florida and California commissions that allowed Fox to compete against his fighter without a valid license or medical clearance.

    "Here's a person who lies on their application -- by saying you're a healthy female with a normal menstrual cycle, you're lying -- who says she has a license when she doesn't," Hambleton said. "It doesn't matter to me what background you come from, whether you're black, white, gay, straight or transgender. When you step into the ring against one of my athletes with no medical clearance, you're endangering my athlete, every other fighter out there and hurting the sport you say you love.

    "And now," he added, "I think she's playing the woe-is-me card."

    Atchley said Fox's lasting emotion Wednesday was "positive or negative, a great sense of relief."

    "Anyone knows when you carry something around and can't talk about it, you will deteriorate mentally, physically and emotionally," he said. "That, in and of itself, makes this a relief. She's dealing with what came around."

    And odds are she has guaranteed she will continue to deal with it.
    Gene Ching
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    For whoso comes amongst many shall one day find that no one man is by so far the mightiest of all.

  13. #13
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    if ronnie coleman turn into woman, he would be undefeatable under heaven.

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    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    Not me personally, mind you, but there's already a thread here and a websearch will provide more.

    Dwarf Cage Fighting
    I missed that one.....Now i don't want to know what's next

  15. #15
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    not really random thoughts on it, but not a cohesive argument either

    her genetic footprint will not change no matter how much estrogen therapy she takes.

    i don't think you can erase the basic fact that she was born male.

    i think she will always have an advantage over women her same weight.

    maybe make her fight both men and women her own weight class?

    allow her to fight but against volunteers? don't make it mandatory for another women to have to fight her?
    "George never did wake up. And, even all that talking didn't make death any easier...at least not for us. Maybe, in the end, all you can really hope for is that your last thought is a nice one...even if it's just about the taste of a nice cold beer."

    "If you find the right balance between desperation and fear you can make people believe anything"

    "Is enlightenment even possible? Or, did I drive by it like a missed exit?"

    It's simpler than you think.

    I could be completely wrong"

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